Interview with Christopher Bowes – Lead Singer & Keytar of The Pirate Metal Band Alestorm!
Alestorm is a Scottish band, that put folk metal and power metal into a blender and created a cocktail of songs about booze, sailing the high seas, and pure fun. A pirate theme characterises their music, so they have been dubbed a “pirate metal” band by many critics and their fan base. Each of their albums is somehow better than the last, they manage to keep the pirate gimmick going and have come up with excellent songs. We want to bring to your attention this interview with our special guest – ‘Captain’ Christopher Bowes! Enjoy it.
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– Hello Chris, let’s get some history on the band… What is the origin story of Alestorm, and when was it formed?
♦ Christopher Bowes: Well, about 20 years ago, myself and our original guitarist Vincent Jackson Jones were in a symphonic death metal band called “Astral Fracture”. We’d had an album out on Napalm Records, but it didn’t do so well. Anyway, as time went on, that band sorta stopped doing things, but me and Tom kept writing music, particularly music about aircraft, flying and pilots. So, we kicked everyone out of the band, renamed it to “Alestorm” and found ourselves a more motivated lineup. There was a funny mix where someone thought we said we sang about “pirates” instead of “pilots”, so we stuck with it, haha! Napalm were interested in continuing the contract Astral Fracture had, and so the rest is history!
– Are your lyrics fictional, or is a bit of reality thrown in?
♦ Christopher Bowes: It’s always been fictional nonsense about wenches and drinking rum!
– Do you all design and create your own looks? Who made your pirate clothes, and make-up?
♦ Christopher Bowes: We have a friend called Matthew Bell all the way from Australia, who is really into traditional medieval pirate clothes. He makes all our linen shirts, pirate hats, and even weapons! He knows much better and has studied all this stuff, so we let him get on with it. We just wear it on stage until it gets ruined.
– Epic modern symphonic folk metal, a mix of Celtic sound … Do you ever yearn to do anything different with your musical style?
♦ Christopher Bowes: Yeah, it gets pretty restrictive sometimes. I think we want to return to our symphonic death metal roots like we used to have in the old days of Astral Fracture. Hopefully, our fans won’t mind – the change will be gradual so nobody should notice, haha!
– Northern Irish Grammys 2013-“Best New Pirate Metal Band”- WINNER. What does it mean to you?
♦ Christopher Bowes: It was such an honour! Being as you are from the UK, I’m sure you know just how prestigious it is to win a Northern Irish Grammy. I guess we were eligible because our bassist Elliot Vernon is actually from Laroe in Northern Ireland. There’s a big pirate metal scene over there, so it’s cool to get that recognition among such heavy hitters (Yarhook, Rumahoy, Waylander, Deathgrog, they’re the other big names in Northern Irish Pirate Metal).
– What bands did you listen to when you were a kid or teenager? How your family reacted, when you said that you wanted to be a metal musician, and who were your biggest inspirations?
♦ Christopher Bowes: My family were distraught! They wanted me to take over the family business – we have a metalworking shop where we build custom trailers for towing behind cars. It’s good money, but hard work, and it wasn’t for me. I guess it paid off getting into metal, we all make quite a lot of money from it now. Musically I was really into all the classic black metal bands, like Venom, Darkthrone, In Flames, that sort of thing.
– What was the first concert you attended? Tell us the wildest tour story you can remember.
♦ Christopher Bowes: My first concert was when I was 15, I went to see Diamond Head at the 02 Arena in Perth, Scotland. It was awesome! They got me into heavy metal. The craziest thing that happened on tour? Our old guitarist Dani Evans once did a shit in Tom G Warrior’s (from Celtic Frost) bunk when we shared a bus with them on the Metalfest festival tour in 2012. Dude was nasty!
– How hard are you rocking right now? Do you follow the modern metal scene and, if so, are there any bands that have impressed you?
♦ Christopher Bowes: I’m really into true power metal right now. Freedom Call and Power Quest are the best at it, they’re so fucking happy and I love it and their excellent songs are well written!
– A week without rum /drink, a week without sex or a week without music?
♦ Christopher Bowes: A week without sex! I’d rather drink rum and listen to heavy metal \m/!
– Thanks for taking the time out for this interview. Your message to all the Meta/ Pirates around the globe?
♦ Christopher Bowes: I wanna tell everyone to EAT RECYCLED HAM!
ALESTORM
Interviewed by Toni Rock